Akron Postgame Presser: Brady Hoke

Don't mind me I'm just here in the back corner minding my own business

You stress turnovers so much. Was this a good game to remind your team what can happen if you lose the turnover battle?

“Well, I think it is in a lot of ways. Number one, give Akron a lot of credit. Their kids came in here like most Mid-American Conference schools, they come in here to win the football game and played to win the football game. They coached it that way, they played it that way. You know, they did a nice job. I told Terry [Bowden] that, and I told Chuck Motta that. They did some things defensively that were a little different, but things that we should be able to overcome to a certain extent, but we didn’t. What was your question?”

Was this a good reminder for what could happen --

“Oh, turnovers? The upset is always in the mind of the favorites. Any time you don’t take care of the football, and I don’t care if we’re playing Saline High School. Or you know, the Super Bowl champions, whoever that was, you can’t turn the ball over. That is number one. Turnover margins will kill you as a football team. The other thing? Penalties. Fitz [Toussaint] got 50 yards of rushing wiped out because we fundamentally didn’t block properly and we held guys. That can’t happen because, you know, that’s 50 yards of rushing. That’s the rhythm of the game. That and then we had a couple balls thrown over our head. I think two of them were defended decently well, and you have to give people credit. It was a good ball, it’s where it needed to be, it was a good catch, but still there’s still too many of those that hit the post and two-deep, and we should have been in better shape but we weren’t. From the coaches first, and me first, we have to do a better job. I mean, you can’t win championships with those mistakes.”

Taylor Lewan mentioned that something was wrong with preparation this week. Did you notice anything?

“I think it’s like anything else. You take finals, tests, and everything in college. You have to study and how much you study usually affects how you’re going to do. Maybe the effort wasn’t there totally. I thought Tuesday, I think I told you Wednesday, I didn’t like practice as much, but I did like Wednesday and Thursday.”

What changes next week?

“Well you know, the one thing that’s interesting is I’m not going to play a down, but we’re going to coach our butts off during the week. Not that we didn’t coach our butts off last week, but obviously we need to do some things a little better.”

Devin was able to shake off his mistake last week, but it took him longer this week. What was different?

“You know what, I don’t know. It’s a really good question, one that I’ll be thinking about all night. Why he made a couple of the decisions that he made. I know he’s beat up a little bit. Was coming in -- ”

Physically?

“Yeah just a little. Nothing terrible. It’s football. We’ve got to get to the bottom of playing more consistently and how we do that.”

A lot of run for Jourdan Lewis today. Was that by design?

“Yeah, we’ve liked how he’s progressed. We think him, [Channing] Stribling, and Delonte [Hollowell], really those three, all get about the same amount of reps. We like how Jourdan’s responded.”

This is the second game in a row the opponent has converted more than half of their third downs. How much of a concern is that, and what’s the problem?

“The problem is not tight enough in coverage, not fitting the run well enough, and no pass rush. That’d be it.”

About the pass rush, what can you do to improve?

“Well, you know, I think the way we’ve worked at it, it’s kind of surprising it hasn’t been as good to a certain degree. I think what hurt us today and if you go back and watch it, is how many times we let him out of the pocket. When we had good push in the middle from whoever it might have been, how many times on the outside -- and that’s one thing going into the game, [we said] whatever we’re going to do, we’re going to do in the cavity up the middle. Push them to the guys on the outside. Well there’s a couple times in there, four times that I remember, he got out, extended plays, made some good throws. But you have to cup better than that.”

Do you believe in wakeup calls?

“I get one sometimes in a hotel. But no, I think number one, we have five goals we have as a team and we go over them on Sundays. Number one is to win, so it’s good to win. It’s a heck of a lot better to win. But time of possession, we were horrific. You’re horrific when you turn the ball over four times. Turnovers. Did they have one? One pick? Two. They had two. So they won that battle. Kicking game … I thought our coverage was really good on kickoff. I thought those guys did a nice job. Obviously our punt game needs to go under the microscope in a lot of areas. That’s one thing we want to pride ourselves on. Was it embarrassing? I think there’s a lot of embarrassing things that happened when you don’t do what you’re supposed to do. I say that from [the perspective] of everybody has a job, from the equipment people, the trainers, the doctors, the coaches, the players. We all have to perform every week, every test at our highest level, and obviously we didn’t do that.”

Can you talk about those last two plays?

“The ones at the end of the game? Well I could have told you before what the last call was going to be, because I know Greg Mattison. It was “cable zero train,” and it was executed very well.”

Aside from the win, what good can you see from this game?

“I think we’ll learn a lot I think we’ll learn a lot about our team. I think you always do. We’ll learn a lot as coaches, we’ll learn a lot as players, and then we’ll go back and correct those things and respond to them.”

What’s your level of concern with the offensive line?

“There were some good holes in there at times. Fitz made a couple good cuts out of it. Is it consistent enough? No. I think watching it like we will, there’s going to be a lot of learning, and there will be a lot of teaching going on.”

Taylor Lewan said the leadership failed. Did you feel that way?

“You know what, I think those guys have taken a lot of pride, and they’ve worked very hard in that part of it. As a coach sometimes you put a little pressure on your leadership and maybe that’s what he’s responding to.”

What I would notice was the pass rush kept allowing itself to be collapsed all toward the middle and the Akron QB would then be able to scramble left or right at his leisure. No pursuit because our guys would all be in one big heap in the middle.

Why was this not a problem for the University of Central Florida and their esteemed defensive coordinator, Jim Fleming (who? correct)?

Why was it not a problem for FCS James Madison?

I geniunely cannot understand how our team, with all its resources, talent, and experience on the d-line (yes, all four starters are upperclassmen, so save the youth nonsense) couldn't solve this problem.

There were at least 2 or 3 times where this happend, another play I remember both sides had the DE and DT run into and knock each other out of the play. It just looks like they are so focused on engaging the guys across from them that they are getting tangled up, and too often the ends are trying to spin back inside right into the gaps the DTs are in.

I was not watching closely all the time, but it seems like the few times that they did try just a speed rush, both Clark and Black had some success.

There were also quite a few times where blitzes were being set up and the DBs and LBs cheated a step or two too fast and resulted in audibles at the line for Akron which negated those pressure attempts.

See, to me getting pressure inside but not containing means you really didn't get pressure in a meaningful way. Yes, Akron's QBs had to move around a bit, but not recording a sack on 49 attempts means the defensive line wasn't doing its job properly.

And it is exactly what Hoke is saying. Michigan is failing to pass rush as a unit. If everyone just does their job and one guy wins you will get great pressure on the QB. Michigan would have one guy win and then others completely fail to do their job.

The most obvious example was this was on the DE-DT stunts, where the utilizes an inside move to beat the OT at the snap and the DT loops around. The DT isn't expected to come around the formation absolutely free and kill the QB. The DT is expected to loop around and get leverage. And that's enough, because the inside move by the DE consistently got pressure, consistently collapsed the pocket. But you don't rush as a unit, one person doesn't do their job, and suddenly a won assignment is negated because the QB can break contain and threaten with his arm and legs.

Replacing one player doesn't help unless the problem is only with one player. Our problem is that we have four guys who continuously make mistakes on the line. Too often four of the five are doing the right thing and it's that 5th guy who messes up and it hurts everyone. All it takes is one and the entire unit sucks.

Putting Bryant in does nothing unless he makes Miller, Kalis and sometimes even Schofield better.

Our line needs to do a better job of being on the same page and working as a unit. Their on-field chemistry is horrible.

I hate to criticize any player, but I was hoping that there was some news that Bryant was getting promoted for the next game. While I agree that one player is not going to fix our line issues, I think that giving Bryant a chance to start is our best potential upgrade, and of course I back that up with no evidence what so ever.

Is wait and see what this team 134 does next, and if the coaches make changes in terms of who plays how much and in what positions. We are who we are, we have the players we have, there is more help on the way for 2014 and 2015 (at least, it sure seems that way) and we have 38 scholarship freshmen on the roster who need to get smarter and gain experience and learn how to play college football. You can see the athletic speed and talent, but you can also see the inexperience and the mistakes both by Gardner at QB and elsewhere all over the roster whether it be holding on runs or offsides on a blitz or missing a block or whatever. There is a reason we went 8-5 last year, and it was not just bad luck on a few plays.

should be in great position to get the ball thrown to him multiple times per game. I couldn't watch more than a couple of minutes of the game, so I don't know if Jehu doesn't get separation often enough, or whether it's a case of Devin just having eyes for Gallon and ignores the other receivers.

Dileo needs waaay more targets. If they are taking Gallon away, you don't go to the other side in Chesson unless he's a proven big time player. You hurt them in the Slot. This also opens up your run game.

And so did Devin. He threw into double coverage to Gallon on one interception. The pick six was another blind desparate throw with protection breaking down. If he just pitches it to Fitz he doesn't fumble. Those plays were a minimum of 7 points of differential max of 21 points.

Hoke expects a lot out of the Dline because the secondary is young. They don't trust the safeties enough to play press man on the corners, snd really the linebackers don't seem to have coverage down yet either. Three step passes are hard to get a sack on. But that last drive did have a play where all but one of the Dline got piled on an the QB scrambled forever.

The offense though is on the line and Devin. Devin needs to look at someone other than Gallon. On the interception Funchess was leading his covering LB by more than a yard. Devin misses that and throws to double coverage.

The spin move is good when not used all of the time. Devin needs to learn to mix up his moves, as a few of those he could have continued to roll outside and did a spin right back into the face of pressure, and it looks like teams are now looking for it.

We are also good at extra points...don't forget that. All you need to know about the DL, in the last 2 games there have been 100 pass attempts and 1 whole sack to show for it. That is absolutely piss poor.

The frustrating play was when we got a pass rush, flushed the QB (who had a sprained knee and a knee brace) and he out ran all of the pressure to the right and fired a pass for a first down. That was the play when I flipped my shit.

in all honesty once Akron smelled blood I doubt he felt any knee pain. Once he gained confidence I could see he was in a zone.

Our team looked nothing like the monstrosity that bullied CMU. That game was proof of talent. This time everyone looked slow and sluggish. It looked like most of them were hung over. Suspensions would be in order but then I somehow doubt Hoke would have enough players to field against Connecticut.

There are a lot of people here calling for calm, but honestly, what IS the reasonable human reaction to youthful immaturity and disrespect? It's no different if these boys took a collective steaming dump on the Diag. Is it immature? Yes. Are stupid young idiots going to be stupid, young and idiotic? Yeah, it's to be expected. A lot of those players aren't even old enough to drink legally. But then adults are supposed to sit by and laugh it off? No, Hoke was visibly upset and he damn well should be.

The kids will probably be fine, but honestly, I challenge anyone who thinks frustration or anger aren't the appropriate responses here. Young idiots fark up, grown-ups get pissed off. It's the cycle of life. If you're a grown-up, you should be pissed off. The kids did everything to deserve every ounce of that anger.

But does anyone really think they took them so lightly, they were drinking Friday night? Really? These players are smart players, I'm pretty sure they don't drink during the season, much less the night before a game...

Yes, they DO drink regularly during the season. TD's Bar on Sat. nights used to get a ton of players there. However, they stay at a hotel Fri. nights, even for home games, so it's not as easy to break curfew/rules. Does that happen? I'm not sure

Michigan didn't once try them over the top even though their entire defensive backfield can't catch up to Devin Funchess. I understand wanting to practice beating on smaller teams with power but first you have to put the game away and that means exploiting the other team's weaknesses. They saved Gallon--he got two targets I think and one was the DB had it as much of a shot at it as Jeremy because he never got more than 5 yards from the LOS. He's tiny but he plays like a big guy and Devin needs practice throwing those routes too. The coaches did such a great job of this for CMU but then didnt here.

Going over the top requires pass protection. Gallon wasn't targeted because he was always double covered and one interception was a bad decision to target Gallon. This should have been a coming out party for Chesson as the second threat after Gallon. Funchess was wide open across the middle on the interception targeted at Gallon. When the QB starts making bad decisions and Oline can't block, you don't start dialing up the long ball every play. With the crappy execution the OC becomes severely tactically limited.

Anyone watch the ND game and their slow start against Purdue? Then 21 points in the fourth to win?

Many commenters are talking about how the players didn't get up for this game, but I think the offensive coaching staff didn't get up for it either. It was hard to tell from the tight camera angles on BTN; maybe just no one was open or the routes were poorly run. But it seemed like going deep just wasn't part of the game plan. I know they would like to have another deep option, and that having Darboh out for the season hurts. But it didn't seem like they were even trying it in this game. (And given the way Akron played, the deep ball is exactly the thing they did need.) I agree it seems strange that they didn't seem to be practicing deep throws, especially when players like Chesson really do need the experience. But it seemed like coming into this game, they had other priorities.

Also, look at the running plays, especially in the first half. They tried a bunch of option-type looks that they haven't shown yet this year (none of which worked), rather than just lining up and running plays that have worked in the past. When these plays didn't work, suddenly you're 3-and-out, and you end up not running very many plays. And when you don't run many plays, it's hard to get into the rest of your offensive gameplan.

I think the offensive coaches thought this game would be a pushover too, so they decided to treat it like a live practice. Remember when all the crazy diamond and "Fritz" stuff first appeared against a badly overmatched Minnesota team two years ago? I think they had the same idea coming into this one: use the tomato can game to work the kinks out of the fancy new plays you want to add to the offense. Except in that game, the Fritz stuff was successful, and kept the offense in rhythm. In this game, the run game wrinkles they started with all failed, and suddenly the offense is out of sync.

Only after halftime did they start running read options, midline veers, and other running plays that have been bread and butter for this team for two years -- and those plays were pretty successful yesterday too. Seemed like the offensive playcalling was both more aggressive in the second half, and played more to the known strengths of the team, because they suddenly realized they had to actually try to win the game.

You never really know how much Hoke is just being Hoke -- he talks about "we need to do a better job as coaches" pretty much all the time anyway -- but in this one I think he really does mean it: the offensive coaches also expected a blow-out, and game-planned for one. When it didn't happpen, they had to adjust too.

As far as the defensive coaching... seems like we saw more of the bend-but-don't-break stuff we saw against ND, and that seems to me like it's done in part to protect a secondary they still don't really trust yet. I'm starting to think our defensive calls this year might be somewhat opponent-independent, and more about trying to hide our weaknesses than attacking the weaknesses of our opponents.

The response to this game has been a bit surprising to me. First and foremost, we won. That is the most important thing. If we played ugly games all year and consistently won by 4, who cares? Obviously that wouldn't likely work out well (playing ugly), but these are the games you learn a lesson from when you lose. We learned a lesson AND won. Life moves on.

second, people seem to ignore the other two games we played. We know what Devin is capable of, we know our defense can make stops, this game isn't the only evidence we have of how our team performs, so I think we should all relax until we see a pattern of this occurring (in my mind this is the first time I have seen a Hoke team look unprepared... It happens).

my last thought is just to me this was a perfect storm of bad. Everyone was off... Gibbons missing sealed that idea for me. Hopefully everyone got it out of their system without ruining the season.